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We Spent Our Whole Lives In Unconsous Excercise Of The Art Of Expressing Our Thoughts With The Help Of Words
-Vincent Van Gogh
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We Spent Our Whole

Vincent Van Gogh
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We Spent Our Whole Lives In Unconsous Excercise Of The Art Of Expressing Our Thoughts With The Help Of Words

Understanding the Quote: "we spent our whole lives in unconsous excercise of the art of..."

This quote by Vincent Van Gogh reflects deeply on the theme of art. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Art, Helping, Whole Life, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Vincent Van Gogh interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh is celebrated for insightful thoughts on art and helping. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Art
Helping
Whole Life
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I Feel Such A Creative Force In Me: I Am Convinced That There Will Be A Time When, Let Us Say, I Will Make Something Good Every Day , On A Regular Basis....i Am Doing My Very Best To Make Every Effort Because I Am Longing So Much To Make Beautiful Things. But Beautiful Things Mean Painstaking Work, Disappointment, And Perseverance.
Beautiful
Perseverance
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What Would Life Be If We Had No Courage To Attempt Anything?
Being Strong
Confidence
Courage
In Trees, I See Expression And Soul
Expression
Tree
Soul
I Am Astonished At The High Prices Paid For Works By Painters Who Are Dead, Prices None Of Them Could Expect When They Were Alive. It Is A Kind Of Tulip Trade, In Which Living Painters Suffer But Do Not Profit.
Suffering
Alive
Kind
One Must Never Let The Fire Go Out In One's Soul, But Keep It Burning.
Fire
Soul
Burning
As Long As Autumn Lasts, I Shall Not Have Hands, Canvas And Colors Enough To Paint The Beautiful Things I See.
Beautiful
Art
Autumn
I Always Dream A Painting Like That, With A Group Of Lively Figures Of The Pals.
Dream
Groups
Pals
There Is No Blue Without Yellow And Without Orange.
Color
Yellow
Orange
We Take Death To Reach A Star
Stars
It's As Interesting And As Difficult To Say A Thing Well As To Paint It. There Is The Art Of Lines And Colours, But The Art Of Words Exists Too, And Will Never Be Less Important.
Art
Interesting
Important
I Use Color In A Completely Arbitrary Way In Order To Express Myself Powerfully.
Order
Color
Arbitrary
It Is Difficult To Know Oneself, But It Isn't Easy To Paint Oneself Either.
Easy
Paint
Difficult
It Interests Me Tremendously To Make Copies... I Started It By Chance And I Find It Teaches Me Things.
Education
Chance
Teach
What Is Drawing? It Is Working Oneself Through An Invisible Iron Wall That Seems To Stand Between What One Feels And What One Can Do.
Art
Wall
Iron
Art Is Something Greater And Higher Than Our Own Skill Or Knowledge Or Learning. That Art Is Something Which, Though Produced By Human Hands, Is Not Wrought By Hands Alone, But Wells Up From A Deeper Source, From A Man's Soul.
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To Know Life, One Must Love Many Things.
Knows
For Great Things Do Not Done Just Happen By Impulse But Are A Succession Of Small Things Linked Together.
Inspirational
Motivational
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Whoever Lives Sincerely And Encounters Much Trouble And Disappointment Without Being Bowed Down Is Worth More Than One Who Has Always Sailed Before The Wind And Has Only Known Prosperity.
Disappointment
Wind
Encounters
If Boyhood And Youth Are But Vanity, Must It Not Be Our Ambition To Become Men?
Inspirational
Time
Ambition
I Devour Nature Ceaselessly. I Exaggerate, Sometimes I Make Changes In The Subject; But Still I Don't Invent The Whole Picture. On The Contrary, I Find It Already There. It's A Question Of Picking Out What One Wants From Nature.
Nature
Want
Sometimes
Cobalt Is A Divine Color And There Is Nothing As Fine For Putting An Atmosphere Round Things. Carmine Is The Red Of Wine And Is Warm And Lively Like Wine. The Same Goes For Emerald Green Too. It's False Economy To Dispense With Them, With Those Colors. Cadmium As Well.
Wine
Color
Atmosphere
Someone Has A Great Fire In His Soul And Nobody Ever Comes To Warm Themselves At It, And Passers-by See Nothing But A Little Smoke At The Top Of The Chimney And Then Go On Their Way.
Heart
Artist
Fire
Great Things Do Not Just Happen By Impulse, But As A Succession Of Small Things Linked Together.
Together
Impulse
Great Things
Everyone Who Works With Love And With Intelligence Finds In The Very Sincerity Of His Love For Nature And Art A Kind Of Armor Against The Opinions Of Other People.
Inspirational
Art
People
No Blue Without Yellow And Without Orange, And If You Do Blue, Then Do Yellow And Orange As Well, Surely.
Blue
Yellow
Orange
Art Is Jealous, And Demands Our Whole Strength ... .
Art
Jealous
Demand
The Beginning Is Perhaps More Difficult Than Anything Else, But Keep Heart, It Will Turn Out All Right.
Heart
Difficult
Turns
What Is Drawing? How Does One Get There? It's Working One's Way Through An Invisible Iron Wall That Seems To Stand Between What One Feels And What One Can Do. How Can One Get Through That Wall? - Since Hammering On It Doesn't Help At All. In My View, One Must Undermine The Wall And Grind Through It Slowly And Patiently.
Wall
Iron
Drawing
As Practice Makes Perfect, I Cannot But Make Progress; Each Drawing One Makes, Each Study One Paints, Is A Step Forward.
Art
Practice
Drawing
Love A Friend, Love A Wife, Something, Whatever You Like, But One Must Love With A Lofty And Serious Intimate Sympathy, With Strength, With Intelligence, And One Must Always Try To Know Deeper, Better, And More.
Wife
Trying
Serious
It Is True That Every Day Has Its Own Evil, And Its Good Too. But How Difficult Must Life Be, Especially Farther On When The Evil Of Each Day Increases As Far As Worldly Things Go, If It Is Not Strengthened And Comforted By Faith. And In Christ All Worldly Things May Become Better, And, As It Were, Sanctified. Theo, Woe Is Me If I Do Not Preach The Gospel; If I Did Not Aim At That And Possess Faith And Hope In Christ, It Would Be Bad For Me Indeed, But No I Have Some Courage.
Woe Is Me
Evil
Would Be
To Suffer Without Complaint Is The Only Lesson We Have To Learn In This Life
Suffering
Lessons
This Life
Great Things Are Not Something Accidental, But Must Certainly Be Willed.
Great Things
To Express The Love Of Two Lovers By A Marriage Of Two Complementary Colors, Their Mingling And Their Opposition, The Mysterious Vibrations Of Kindred Tones. To Express The Thought Of A Brow By The Radiance Of Light Tone Against A Somber Background; To Express Hope By Some Star, The Eagerness Of A Soul By A Sunset Radiance.
Stars
Sunset
Light
If One Has Such An Encounter It Is To Be Expected It Will Bring Him Into Conflict, Especially Conflict With Himself, Because One Sometimes Literally Does Not Know What To Do Or What Not To Do. But Is This Struggle And Even The Mistakes One May Make, Not Better, And Do They Not Develop Us More Than If We Keep Systematically Away From Emotions?
Mistake
Struggle
Emotional
Someday Death Will Take Us To Another Star.
Stars
Someday
Man Is Not On The Earth Solely For His Own Happiness. He Is There To Realize Great Things For Humanity.
Men
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Earth
A Good Picture Is Equivalent To A Good Deed.
Deeds
Good Deeds
I Wanted To Make People Think Of A Totally Different Way Of Living From That Which We, Educated People, Live. I Would Absolutely Not Want Anyone To Find It Beautiful Or Good Without A Thought.
Beautiful
Thinking
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Let Us Keep Courage And Try To Be Patient And Gentle. And Let Us Not Mind Being Eccentric, And Make Distinction Between Good And Evil.
Evil
Mind
Trying
Painting Is Like Having A Bad Mistress Who Spends And Spends And It's Never Enough ... I Tell Myself That Even If A Tolerable Study Comes Out Of It From Time To Time, It Would Have Been Cheaper To Buy It From Somebody Else.
Mistress
Study
Painting
There Is No Blue Without Yellow And Without Orange, And If You Put In Blue, Then You Must Put In Yellow, And Orange Too, Mustn't You? Oh Well, You Will Tell Me That What I Write To You Are Only Banalities.
Writing
Blue
Yellow
Though I Am Often In The Depths Of Misery, There Is Still Calmness, Pure Harmony And Music Inside Me. I See Paintings Or Drawings In The Poorest Cottages, In The Dirtiest Corners. And My Mind Is Driven Towards These Things With An Irresistible Momentum.
Music
Drawing
Mind
One Can Never Study Nature Too Much And Too Hard
Nature
Too Much
Study
There Is But One Paris And However Hard Living May Be Here, And If It Became Worse And Harder Even—the French Air Clears Up The Brain And Does Good—a World Of Good.
Air
Paris
Brain
Christ Alone, Of All The Philosophers, Magicians, Etc., Has Affirmed Eternal Life As The Most Important Certainty, The Infinity Of Time, The Futility Of Death, The Necessity And Purpose Of Serenity And Devotion. He Lived Serenely, As An Artist Greater Than All Other Artists, Scorning Marble And Clay And Paint, Working In The Living Flesh. In Other Words, This Peerless Artist, Scarcely Conceivable With The Blunt Instrument Of Our Modern, Nervous And Obtuse Brains, Made Neither Statues Nor Paintings Nor Books. He Maintained In No Uncertain Terms That He Made ... Living Men, Immortals.
Book
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It Constantly Remains A Source Of Disappointment To Me That My Drawings Are Not Yet What I Want Them To Be. The Difficulties Are Indeed Numerous And Great, And Cannot Be Overcome At Once. To Make Progress Is A Kind Of Miner’s Work; It Doesn’t Advance As Quickly As One Would Like, And As Others Also Expect, But As One Stands Before Such A Task, The Basic Necessities Are Patience And Faithfulness. In Fact, I Do Not Think Much About The Difficulties, Because If One Thought Of Them Too Much One Would Get Stunned Or Disturbed.
Disappointment
Thinking
Drawing
How Right It Is To Love Flowers And The Greenery Of Pines And Ivy And Hawthorn Hedges; They Have Been With Us From The Very Beginning.
Flower
Ivy
Greenery
I Believe That One Thinks Much More Soundly If The Thoughts Arise From Direct Contact With Things, Than If One Looks At Things With The Aim Of Finding This Or That In Them.
Believe
Thinking
Looks
How Lovely Yellow Is! It Stands For The Sun.
Yellow
Lovely
Sun
I Believe It Is One's Duty To Paint The Rich And Magnificent Aspects Of Nature. We Need Gaiety And Happiness, Hope And Love.
Believe
And Love
Needs
A Woman Is Not Old As Long As She Loves And Is Loved
Long
I Lost My Job As An Art Salesman. It Was The Customer's Fault. He Wanted To Buy The Wrong Paintings.
Art
Jobs
Faults
Love Is Eternal -- The Aspect May Change, But Not The Essence. There Is The Same Difference In A Person Before And After He Is In Love As There Is In An Unlighted Lamp And One That Is Burning. The Lamp Was There And Was A Good Lamp, But Now It Is Shedding Light Too, And That Is Its Real Function. And Love Makes One Calmer About Many Things, And That Way, One Is More Fit For One's Work.
Love
Motivational
Real
Art, Although Produced By Man's Hands, Is Something Not Created By Hands Alone, But Something Which Wells Up From A Deeper Source Out Of Our Soul.....my Sympathies In The Literary As Well As In The Artistic Field Are Drawn Most Strongly To Those Artists In Whom I See Most The Working Of The Soul.
Art
Men
Hands
Seek Only Light And Freedom And Do Not Immerse Yourself Too Deeply In The Worldly Mire.
Light
Worldly
I Feel A Certain Calm. There Is Safety In The Midst Of Danger. What Would Life Be If We Had No Courage To Attempt Anything?
Hands
Safety
Calm
Describing Starry Night: Firmament And Planets Both Disappeared, But The Mighty Breath Which Gives Life To All Things And In Which All Is Bound Up Remained.
Life
Night
Giving
In An Artist's Life, Death Is Perhaps Not The Most Difficult Thing.
Artist
Life Death
Difficult
Painting Demands An Intelligent Model.
Intelligent
Demand
Painting
What Lives In Art And Is Eternally Living, Is First Of All The Painter And Then The Painting.
Art
Firsts
Painting
My Sketchbook Is A Witness Of What I Am Experiencing, Scribbling Things Whenever They Happen.
Sketchbooks
Witness
Happens
Ah! Portraiture, Portraiture With The Thought, The Soul Of The Model In It, That Is What I Think Must Come.
Thinking
Soul
Portraiture
Occasionally, In Times Of Worry, I've Longed To Be Stylish, But On Second Thought I Say No-just Let Me Be Myself-and Express Rough, Yet True Things With Rough Workmanship.
Worry
Second Thoughts
Stylish
Fortunately For Me, I Know Well Enough What I Want, And Am Basically Utterly Indifferent To The Criticism That I Work To Hurriedly. In Answer To That, I Have Done Some Things Even More Hurriedly Theses Last Few Days.
Inspirational
Criticism
Done
I Never Get Tired Of The Blue Sky.
Tired
Blue
Sky
Paintings Have A Life Of Their Own That Derives From The Painter's Soul.
Artist
Soul
Painting
Just Slap Something On It When You See A Blank Canvas Staring At You With A Sort Of Imbecility.
Canvas
Blank
Staring
My Aim In Life Is To Make Pictures And Drawings, As Many And As Well As I Can; Then, At The End Of My Life... Looking Back With Love And Tender Regret, And Thinking, 'oh, The Pictures I Might Have Made!'
Regret
Thinking
Drawing
There Are So Many People, Especially Among Our Comrades, Who Imagine That Words Are Nothing - On The Contrary, Isn't It True That Saying A Thing Well Is As Interesting And As Difficult As Painting It?
People
Interesting
Painting
Many People Seem To Think It Foolish, Even Superstitious, To Believe That The World Could Still Change For The Better. And It Is True That In Winter It Is Sometimes So Bitingly Cold That One Is Tempted To Say, 'what Do I Care If There Is A Summer; Its Warmth Is No Help To Me Now.' Yes, Evil Often Seems To Surpass Good. But Then, In Spite Of Us, And Without Our Permission, There Comes At Last An End To The Bitter Frosts. One Morning The Wind Turns, And There Is A Thaw. And So I Must Still Have Hope.
Good Morning
Summer
Believe
Love Always Brings Difficulties, That Is True, But The Good Side Of It Is That It Gives Energy.
Life
True Love
Art
Ah, Manet Has Come Very, Very Close To It And Courbet - The Marrying Of Form And Colour.
Form
Masters
Colour
Don't Lose Heart If It's Very Difficult At Times, Everything Will Come Out All Right And Nobody Can In The Beginning Do As He Wishes.
Heart
Wish
Difficult
I Want To Paint What I Feel, And Feel What I Paint.
Want
Paint
Feels
A Weaver Who Has To Direct And To Interweave A Great Many Little Threads Has No Time To Philosophize About It, But Rather He Is So Absorbed In His Work That He Doesn't Think But Acts, And He Feels How Things Must Go More Than He Can Explain It.
Thinking
Littles
Great Men
The Sunflower Is Mine, In A Way.
Sunflower
Way
Mines
If Only We Try To Live Sincerely, It Will Go Well With Us, Even Though We Are Certain To Experience Real Sorrow, And Great Disappointments, And Also Will Probably Commit Great Faults And Do Wrong Things, But It Certainly Is True, Thatit Is Better To Be High-spirited, Even Though One Makes More Mistakes, Than To Be Narrow-minded And All Too Prudent. It Is Good To Love Many Things, For Therein Lies The True Strength, And Whosoever Loves Much Performs Much, And Can Accomplish Much, And What Is Done In Love, Is Well Done.
Life
Disappointment
Real
Let’s Not Forget That The Little Emotions Are The Great Captains Of Our Lives And We Obey Them Without Realizing It.
Emotional
Feelings
Littles
In The End We Shall Have Had Enough Of Cynicism, Skepticism And Humbug, And We Shall Want To Live More Musically.
Want
Had Enough
Harmony
I Can't Change The Fact That My Paintings Don't Sell. But The Time Will Come When People Will Recognize That They Are Worth More Than The Value Of The Paints Used In The Picture.
People
Facts
Painting
I Sometimes Think There Is Nothing So Delightful As Drawing.
Thinking
Drawing
Sketching
How Rich Art Is, If One Can Only Remember What One Has Seen, One Is Never Empty Of Thoughts Or Truly Lonely, Never Alone.
Lonely
Art
Remember
I Always Think Photographs Abominable, And I Don't Like To Have Them Around, Particularly Not Those Of Persons I Know And Love. Those Photographic Portraits Wither Much Sooner Than We Ourselves Do, Whereas The Painted Portrait Is A Thing Which Is Felt, Done With Love.
Character
Thinking
Two
You Have First To Experience What You Want To Express.
Motivational
Want
Firsts
You Can Feel The Stars And The Infinity Of The Sky Since Life, In Spite Of Everything, Is Like A Dream.
Dream
Stars
Sky
Nature Always Begins By Resisting The Artist, But He Who Really Takes It Seriously Does Not Allow That Resistance To Put Him Off His Stride; On The Contrary, It Is That Much More Of A Stimulus To Fight For Victory.
Fighting
Artist
Victory
Painting Is A Faith, And It Imposes The Duty To Disregard Public Opinion.
Faith
Art
Public Opinion
Painting It Was Hard Graft... In Addition Red, Yellow, Brown Ochre, Black, Terra Sienna, Bistre, And The Result Is A Red-brown That Varies From Bistre To Deep Wine-red And To Pale, Blond Reddish.
Wine
Yellow
Black
Van Gogh Was So Under Appreciated In His Time, He Sold Only One Of His 900 Paintings While Alive. Posthumously, He Became One Of The Most Famous Artists Of All Time And His Work Is Now Considered Priceless. Oh The Irony.
Artist
Alive
Irony
The Canvas Has An Idiotic Stare And Mesmerises Some Painters So Much That They Turn Into Idiots Themselves.
Canvas
Idiot
Staring
At Present I Absolutely Want To Paint A Starry Sky. It Often Seems To Me That Night Is Still More Richly Coloured Than The Day; Having Hues Of The Most Intense Violets, Blues And Greens. If Only You Pay Attention To It You Will See That Certain Stars Are Lemon-yellow, Others Pink Or A Green, Blue And Forget-me-not Brilliance. And Without My Expatiating On This Theme It Is Obvious That Putting Little White Dots On The Blue-black Is Not Enough To Paint A Starry Sky.
Stars
Night
Blue
There Is No Such Thing As An Ugly Woman.
Funny
Women
Ugly
And When I Read, And Really I Do Not Read So Much, Only A Few Authors, - A Few Men That I Discovered By Accident - I Do This Because They Look At Things In A Broader, Milder And More Affectionate Way Than I Do, And Because They Know Life Better, So That I Can Learn From Them.
Men
Looks
Way
When Using Colors To Recreate A General Harmony Of Tones In Nature, One Loses It By Painfully Exact Imitation. One Keeps It By Recreating In An Equivalent Color Range, And That May Not Be Exactly, Or Far From Exactly, Like The Model.
Color
May
Tone
For Me Work Is An Absolute Necessity, Indeed I Can't Really Drag It Out, I Take No More Pleasure In Anything Than In Work, That's To Say, Pleasure In Other Things Stops Immediately And I Become Melancholy If I Can't Get On With The Work.
Melancholy
Pleasure
Drag
When We Are Working At A Difficult Task And Strive After A Good Thing, We Are Fighting A Righteous Battle, The Direct Reward Of Which Is That We Are Kept From Much Evil. As We Advance In Life It Becomes More And More Difficult, But In Fighting The Difficulties The Inmost Strength Of The Heart Is Developed.
Heart
Fighting
Order
One May Have A Blazing Hearth In One's Soul And Yet No One Ever Came To Sit By It. Passers-by See Only A Wisp Of Smoke From The Chimney And Continue On Their Way.
Love
Loneliness
Artist
There Is The Same Difference In A Person Before And After He Is In Love, As There Is In An Unlighted Lamp And One That Is Burning.
Love
Differences
Romance
And Painted Portraits Have A Life Of Their Own That Comes From Deep In The Soul Of The Painter And Where The Machine Can't Go.
Soul
Portraits
Machines
I Work Even In The Middle Of The Day, In The Full Sunshine, And I Enjoy It Like A Cicada.
Work
Sunshine
Cicadas
Purity Of Soul And Impurity Of Body Can Go Together.
Soul
Together
Body
What Color Is In A Picture, Enthusiasm Is In Life.
Color
Enthusiasm
I Am Painting With The Same Enthusiasm As A Marseillaise Eats Bouillabaisse ... I Am Painting Big Sunflowers.
Sunflower
Enthusiasm
Painting
I Hope I Shall Be Able To Make Some Drawings In Which There Is Something Human.
Drawing
Humanity
Able
I Myself Am Quite Absorbed By The Delicate Yellow, Delicate Soft Green, Delicate Violet Of A Ploughed And Weeded Piece Of Soil.
Nature
Yellow
Pieces
I Shouldn't Precisely Have Chosen Madness If There Had Been Any Choice, But Once Such A Thing Has Taken Hold Of You, You Can't Very Well Get Out Of It.
Taken
Choices
Madness
For The Great Doesn't Happen Through Impulse Alone, And Is A Succession Of Little Things That Are Brought Together.
Together
Littles
Little Things
Well, I Dare Not Allow Myself Any Illusions, And I Am Afraid It May Never Happen That Father And Mother Will Really Appreciate My Art. It Is Not Their Fault; We Do Not See The Same Things With The Same Eyes, Or Have The Same Thoughts Raised In Us By Them. They Will Never Be Able To Understand What Painting Is.
Mother
Art
Father
The Majority Of (painters), Because They Aren't Colorists, Do Not See Yellow, Orange Or Sulphur In The South (of France) And They Call A Painter Mad If He Sees With Eyes Other Than Theirs
Eye
Yellow
Orange
But For One's Health As You Say, It Is Very Necessary To Work In The Garden And See The Flowers Growing.
Flower
Garden
Flowers Growing
Those Dutchmen Had Hardly Any Imagination Or Fantasy, But Their Good Taste And Their Scientific Knowledge Of Composition Were Enormous.
Artist
Imagination
Taste
Love Always Causes Trouble, That's True, But In Its Favour, It Energizes.
Causes
Favour
Trouble
No, No Thought To The Winnings. One Loves Because One Loves.
Winning
Love Is
One Love
We Spent Our Whole Lives In Unconsous Excercise Of The Art Of Expressing Our Thoughts With The Help Of Words
Art
Helping
Whole Life
Success Is Sometimes The Outcome Of A Whole String Of Failures.
Art
Outcomes
Sometimes
Study, Analyse The Social Structure - That's Always Far More Effective Than Moralising.
Morality
Study
Social
What Is True Is That I Have At Times Earned My Own Crust Of Bread, And At Other Times A Friend Has Given It To Me Out Of The Goodness Of His Heart. I Have Lived Whatever Way I Could, For Better Or For Worse, Taking Things Just As They Came.
Heart
Way
Bread
The Diseases That We Civilized People Labor Under Most Are Melancholy And Pessimism.
People
Disease
Pessimism
As We Advance In Life It Becomes More And More Difficult, But In Fighting The Difficulties The Inmost Strength Of The Heart Is Developed.
Strength
Meaningful
Heart
My Great Longing Is To Make Those Very Incorrectnesses, Those Deviations, Remodellings, Changes In Reality, So That They May Become, Yes, Lies If You Like - But Truer Than The Literal Truth.
Truth
Lying
Reality
Life Is Not Long For Anybody, And The Problem Is Only To Make Something Of It.
Long
Problem
Life Is
I Often Think Of You All, One Cannot Do What One Wants In Life. The More You Feel Attached To A Spot, The More Ruthlessly You Are Compelled To Leave It, But The Memories Remain, And One Remembers - As In A Looking Glass, Darkly - One's Absent Friends.
Memories
Thinking
Glasses
Spring Is The Fresh Green Of Young Corn And The Pink Blush Of Blossoms. Autumn Contrasts The Yellowed Foilage With Violet Hues. Winter Is The White Of Snow Against Its Black Forms ... Summer Is The Contrast Of Blues And The Golden Bronze Of The Corn.
Summer
Spring
Winter
I'll Start With Small Things.
Small Things
Since Visiting The Abatoirs Of S. France I Have Stopped Eating Meat.
Meat
France
Eating
Here Everything Is So Wholly What I Consider Beautiful. In Other Words, There Is Peace Here.
Beautiful
All Art Is A Gift. It Is First Of All A Gift That The Maker Can Do It. It Is Then A Gift To Someone Else, Whether They Pay For It Or Not. The Wonder Of It Is That We Cannot Get The Production Of These Gifts Stopped. Art Is Life Seeking Itself. It Is Our Intractable Expressions Of Love For The Beauties, Ideas And Epiphanies We Regularly Find. I Framed The Painting. It's Now Hanging In Our Den. "i Have Walked This Earth For 30 Years, And, Out Of Gratitude, Want To Leave Some Souvenir.
Gratitude
Art
Years
The More I Become Decomposed, The More Sick And Fragile I Am, The More I Become An Artist.
Health
Artist
Sick
If You Hear A Voice Within You Say 'you Cannot Paint,' Then By All Means Paint, And That Voice Will Be Silenced.
Inspirational
Motivational
Positive
The Uglier, Older, Meaner, Iller, Poorer I Get, The More I Wish To Take My Revenge By Doing Brilliant Color, Well Arranged, Resplendent.
Revenge
Color
Wish
I Consciously Choose The Dog's Path Through Life. I Shall Be Poor; I Shall Be A Painter.
Dog
Path
Poor
To Believe In God For Me Is To Feel That There Is A God, Not A Dead One, Or A Stuffed One, Who With Irresistible Force Urges Us Towards More Loving.
Believe
Belief
Force
The Only Time I Feel Alive Is When I'm Painting.
Art
Passion
Alive
Do Not Quench Your Inspiration And Your Imagination; Do Not Become The Slave Of Your Model.
Inspiration
Science
Artist
One Must Spoil As Many Canvases As One Succeeds With.
Succeed
Spoil
If The Storm Within Gets Too Loud, I Take A Glass Too Much To Stun Myself.
Glasses
Storm
Too Much
The Sadness Will Last Forever.
Sad
Sadness
Forever
In Order To Work And To Become An Artist One Needs Love. At Least, One Who Wants Sentiment In His Work Must In The First Place Feel It Himself, And Live With His Heart
Heart
Artist
Order
I Long So Much To Make Beautiful Things. But Beautiful Things Require Effort And Disappointment And Perseverance.
Beautiful
Perseverance
Disappointment
When I Have A Model Who Is Quiet And Steady And With Whom I Am Acquainted, Then I Draw Repeatedly 'til There Is One Drawing That Is Different From The Rest, Which Does Not Look Like An Ordinary Study, But More Typical And With More Feeling.
Drawing
Feelings
Typical
The Sight Of Stars Makes Me Dream.
Dream
Stars
Sight
It Is With The Reading Of Books The Same As With Looking At Pictures; One Must, Without Doubt, Without Hesitations, With Assurance, Admire What Is Beautiful.
Beautiful
Book
Reading
Still, There Is A Calm, Pure Harmony, And Music Inside Of Me.
Music
Art
Calm
The World Concerns Me Only In So Far As I Have A Certain Debt And Duty To It, Because I Have Lived In It For Thirty Years And Owe To It To Leave Behind Some Souvenir In The Shape Of Drawings And Paintings – Not Done To Please Any Particular Movement, But Within Which A Genuine Human Sentiment Is Expressed.
Years
Drawing
Done
I Want To Get To The Point Where People Say Of My Work, That Man Feels Deeply.
Men
People
Want
One Of The Hardest Things To Do Is To Paint Darkness Which Nonetheless Has Light In It.
Light
Darkness
Painting
To Exaggerate The Fairness Of Hair, I Come Even To Orange Tones, Chromes And Pale Yellow ... I Make A Plain Background Of The Richest, Intensest Blue That I Can Contrive, And By This Simple Combination Of The Bright Head Against The Rich Blue Background, I Get A Mysterious Effect, Like A Star In The Depths Of An Azure Sky.
Stars
Simple
Pale Yellow
Poetry Surrounds Us Everywhere, But Putting It On Paper Is, Alas, Not So Easy As Looking At It.
Artist
Paper
Easy
Your Profession Is Not What Brings Home Your Weekly Paycheck, Your Profession Is What You're Put Here On Earth To Do, With Such Passion And Such Intensity That It Becomes Spiritual In Calling.
Inspirational
Motivational
Spiritual
To Save A Life Is A Real And Beautiful Thing. To Make A Home For The Homeless, Yes, It Is A Thing That Must Be Good; Whatever The World May Say, It Cannot Be Wrong.
Beautiful
Real
Home
The Thing Has Already Taken Form In My Mind Before I Start It. The First Attempts Are Absolutely Unbearable. I Say This Because I Want You To Know That If You See Something Worthwhile In What I Am Doing, It Is Not By Accident But Because Of Real Direction And Purpose.
Real
Taken
Mind
The Cypresses Are Always Occupying My Thoughts.
Cypresses
Obsession
My Thoughts
In General, And Most Especially With Artists, I Pay As Much Attention To The Man Who Does The Work, As To The Work Itself.
Artist
Men
Doe
In My View, I Am Often Immensely Rich, Not In Money, But (although Just Now Perhaps Not All The Time) Rich Because I Have Found My Metier, Something I Can Devote Myself To Heart And Soul And That Gives Inspiration And Meaning To My Life.
Inspiration
Heart
Views
I Am Not An Adventurer By Choice But By Fate.
Adventure
Fate
Destiny
What Am I In Most People's Eyes? A Nonentity Or An Eccentric And Disagreeable Man... I Should Want My Work To Show What Is In The Heart Of Such An Eccentric, Of Such A Nobody.
Heart
Eye
Men
Sometimes Art Seems To Be Something Very Sublime, And, As You Say, Something Sacred.
Art
Sublime
Sacred
To Die For The Sake Of Dying - I Prefer To Die Of Passion Than To Die Of Boredom!
Passion
Boredom
Dying
Just Dash Something Down If You See A Blank Canvas Staring At You With A Certain Imbecility. You Do Not Know How Paralyzing It Is, That Staring Of A Blank Canvas Which Says To The Painter: You Don't Know Anything.
Insecurity
Canvas
Blank
If We Study Japanese Art, We See A Man Who Is Undoubtedly Wise, Philosophic And Intelligent, Who Spends His Time Doing What? He Studies A Single Blade Of Grass.
Wise
Art
Intelligent
As A Painter I Shall Never Signify Anything Of Importance. I Feel It Absolutely.
Painting
Importance
Painter
Find Things Beautiful As Much As You Can, Most People Find Too Little Beautiful.
Beautiful
People
Littles
And In A Picture I Want To Say Something Comforting, As Music Is Comforting.
Art
Comforting
Want
Painting It Was Hard Graft. There Are One And A Half Large Tubes Of White In The Ground - Yet That Ground Is Very Dark.
Dark
White
Half
I Felt My Energy Return And That I Said To Myself, In Any Event I'll Recover From It, I'll Pick Up My Pencil That I Put Down In My Great Discouragement And I'll Get Back To Drawing, And From Then On, It Seems To Me, Everything Has Changed For Me.
Drawing
Return
Energy
I've Just Kept On Ceaselessly Painting In Order To Learn Painting.
Order
Painting
It Is Only Too True That A Lot Of Artists Are Mentally Ill - It's A Life Which, To Put It Mildly, Makes One An Outsider. I'm All Right When I Completely Immerse Myself In Work, But I'll Always Remain Half Crazy.
Crazy
Artist
Half
But I Must Work On In Full Calmness And Serenity... The World Concerns Me Only In So Far As I Feel A Certain Debt And Duty Towards It, Because I Have Walked On The Earth For Thirty Years, And Out Of Gratitude Want To Leave Some Souvenir In The Shape Of Drawings Or Pictures, Not Made To Please A Certain Tendency In Art, But To Express A Sincere Human Feeling. So This Work Is The Aim-and Through Concentration Upon That One Idea, Everything One Does Is Simplified. Now The Work Goes Slowly-a Reason The More To Lose No Time.
Gratitude
Art
Years
It Is A Sad And Very Melancholy Scene, Which Must Strike Everyone Who Knows And Feels That We Also Have To Pass One Day Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death, And “que La Fin De La Vie Humaine, Ce Sont Des Larmes Ou Des Cheveux Blancs.” What Lies Beyond This Is A Great Mystery That Only God Knows, But He Has Revealed Absolutely Through His Word That There Is A Resurrection Of The Dead.
Lying
Shadow Of Death
One Day
What Am I In The Eyes Of Most People - A Nonentity, An Eccentric, Or An Unpleasant Person - Somebody Who Has No Position In Society And Will Never Have; In Short, The Lowest Of The Low. All Right, Then - Even If That Were Absolutely True, Then I Should One Day Like To Show By My Work What Such An Eccentric, Such A Nobody, Has In His Heart.
Eye
Heart
People
That I Was Not Suited To Commerce Or Academic Study In No Way Proves That I Should Also Be Unfit To Be A Painter.
Way
Study
Academic
It Is Not Only By One's Impulses That One Achieves Greatness, But Also By Patiently Filing Away The Steel Wall That Separates What One Feels From What One Is Capable Of Doing.
Wall
Greatness
Steel
I Dream Of Painting And Then I Paint My Dream.
Inspirational
Education
Dream
How Can I Be Useful, Of What Service Can I Be? There Is Something Inside Me, What Can It Be?
Aries
Selfless Service
Self Discovery
A Likeness Different From The Products Of The God-fearing Photographer.
Different
Photographer
Realism
I Do Not Know Myself How I Paint It. I Sit Down With A White Board Before The Spot That Strikes Me. I Look At What Is Before My Eyes, And Say To Myself, That White Board Must Become Something.
Eye
White
Boards
My Brushwork Is Quite Unsystematic. I Slam The Paint On In All Sorts Of Ways And Leave Each Result To Take Care Of Itself.
Care
Way
Paint
The Great Things Are Not Done By Impulse, But By A Series Of Small Things Brought Together. And Great Things Are Not Something Accidental, But Must Certainly Be Willed.
Together
Done
Impulse
Do Not Think Too Deeply About These Things - Gradually They Will Become Clearer To You
Inspirational
Thinking
What I Need Is Courage, And This Often Fails Me. And It Is Also A Fact That Since My Disease, When I Am In The Fields I Am Overwhelmed By A Feeling Of Loneliness To Such A Horrible Extent That I Shy Away From Going Out. But This Will Change All The Same As Time Goes On. Only When I Stand A Painting Before My Easel Do I Feel Somewhat Alive. Never Mind, This Is Going To Change Too, For Now My Health Is So Good That I Suppose The Physical Part Of Me Will Gain The Victory.
Loneliness
Feelings
Mind
But On The Road That I'm On I Must Continue; If I Do Nothing, If I Don't Study, If I Don't Keep On Trying, Then I'm Lost, Then Woe Betide Me. That's How I See This, To Keep On, Keep On, That's What's Needed.
Trying
Woe
Study
What Preys On My Mind Is Simply This One Question: What Am I Good For, Could I Not Be Of Service Or Use In Some Way?
Mind
Use
Way
I Am An Artist... It's Self-evident That What That Word Implies Is Looking For Something All The Time Without Ever Finding It In Full. It Is The Opposite Of Saying, 'i Know All About It. I've Already Found It.' As Far As I'm Concerned, The Word Means, 'i Am Looking. I Am Hunting For It. I Am Deeply Involved.'
Mean
Artist
Hunting
What Is Done In Love Is Done Well.
Love
Positivity
Positive Life
I've Never Felt A Desire (and I Don't Believe I Ever Shall) To Bring The Public To My Work... A Certain Popularity Seems To Me The Least Desirable Of Things.
Believe
Desire
Popularity
Accurate Drawing, Accurate Colour, Is Perhaps Not The Essential Thing To Aim At, Because The Reflection Of Reality In A Mirror, If It Could Be Caught, Colour And All, Would Not Be A Picture At All, No More Than A Photograph.
Reflection
Reality
Mirrors
I Don't Know Anything With Certainty, But Seeing The Stars Makes Me Dream.
Inspirational
Dream
Art
There Was A Sentence In Your Letter That Struck Me, “i Wish I Were Far Away From Everything, I Am The Cause Of All, And Bring Only Sorrow To Everybody, I Alone Have Brought All This Misery On Myself And Others.” These Words Struck Me Because That Same Feeling, Just The Same, Not More Nor Less, Is Also On My Conscience.
Feelings
Sorrow
Wish
Modern Reality Has Got Such A Hold On Us That... When We Attempt To Reconstruct The Ancient Days In Our Thoughts...the Minor Events Of Our Lives Tear Us Away From Our Meditations, And... Thrust Us Back Into Our Personal [problems]
Reality
Meditation
Tears
Even The Knowledge Of My Own Fallibility Cannot Keep Me From Making Mistakes. Only When I Fall Do I Get Up Again.
Mistake
Fall
Knowledge
One Must Learn To Read, Just As One Must Learn To See And Learn To Live.
It Is A Pity That, As One Gradually Gains Experience, One Loses One's Youth.
Gains
Youth
Pity
L Can Do Very Well Without God Both In My Life And In My Painting, But L Cannot, Ill As I Am, Do Without Something Which Is Greater Than L, Which Is My Life — The Power To Create.
Artist
Suffering
Atheism
A Good Painting Should Be The Equivalent Of A Good Deed.
Deeds
Painting
Should
An Artist Need Not Be A Minister Or A Collector In Church, But He Must Have A Warm Heart For People, And I Find It A Noble Thing That, For Example, No Winter Passed Without The Graphic Doing Something To Keep Alive Sympathy For The Poor.
Heart
Winter
Artist
I Confess I Do Not Know Why, But Looking At The Stars Always Makes Me Dream.
Dream
Stars
Knows
An Artist Needn't Be A Clergyman Or A Churchwarden, But He Certainly Must Have A Warm Heart For His Fellow Men.
Art
Men
Fellow Man
I Have Played Hell Somewhat With The Truthfulness Of The Colours.
Truth
Hell
Truthfulness
And Love Makes One Calmer About Many Things, And In That Way, One Is More Fit For One's Work.
Valentines Day
Way
Fit
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